One Being Many Personalities

A little bit about myself. Like I said in “Props to the Penguin” there are many aspects to my being. Unlike the character in Comedity I don’t feel each is it’s own entity. Rather each is a card in the deck that is my being. Some of these cardz include me being… a husband, a friend, a brother, a son, a lover, a fighter, a nice guy, an American, a worker, a flirt, a free-thinker, a wise-ass, a contact juggler, a romantic, a fan, a leader, a Pastafarian, a traveler, a pirate, a swinger, a reader, a writer, a designer, a planner, a regular guy. I’m just your average Jack.

I figure I’ll just pick out a few of those labels and expound on them a bit. Hopefully give you a better idea of what makes me, me.

A husband. Yes I am a married man. I have been with my wife for almost 12 years now. She is the love of my life and I absolutely adore her. I believe that relationships take time and effort. They need to be built and nurtured. That being said I do believe in love at first site. Perhaps it’s the way I was raised but I have always known that when I met the person for me I would know it. And that’s exactly how it happened. I met the woman that would one day be my wife purely by accident. I wasn’t looking for her but I found her. And I knew right away that we would be great together. Yes our relationship would take work and yes we would argue on occasion but I knew the moment I saw her that we had the spark that would overcome all adversity.

A brother, A son. I am the oldest of four kids. Two boys and two girls. All within a few years of each other and born to parents who, at the time, were considered a little too young to be parents. For the most part I get along with my siblings although at times they can be a handful. My parents…well…they will forever be teenagers. They are hippies without the long hair and drugs. They love everything and everyone but no one near as fiercely as they love each other. They are crazy about each other. It would be sickening to see their public displays of affection (PDAs) and to hear them flirting but I’ve become immune to it. Even more so when I consider how my wife and I do the same thing.

I read a book last year where the main character explains how there are actually vampires in the world. No not the classical nocturnal, pale skin, and fangs. The real life vampires are people who feed off energy. Each having a specific emotion that fuels them. Comedians are the easiest to explain. A comedian vampire loves laughter. He loves to see people smile and hear them laugh. A single laugh could sustain them better then any food or drink.

With that in mind my parents are vampires of love. They feed off of the energy of their friends and family around them. My parents have more people who refer to them as “Mom” and “Dad” then the Bradys and Waltons combined. Almost every friend my siblings and I had called my parents Mom and Dad. They were welcomed into our home as if they were born with our surname and most tended to enjoy it there more then their own house. If you were friend you were family. With all the rights and privileges that came with it.

It is with that in mind that I believe that my parents shaped who I am today. (Even though they may never know it.) More to come on that later.

A fighter. I have always been a fan of the fighting arts, anything from knights in armor to muscular men with boxing gloves. They all interested me. I am by no means an aggressive guy. I’m actually more of a passivist. I don’t like confrontation however I enjoy the grace and power that some of these “martial arts” embody. I have studied many forms of fighting. Many of which I have taken with my wife. She being a History Major (and a redhead LOL) shares my passion for war and fighting. We have trained in archery, sword fighting, staff fighting, wrestling and even karate; earning our black belts in the spring of 2009. Like I said we are not overly aggressive we just enjoy the grace and power of these art forms.

That being said it is not uncommon for her and I to match skills at any random occasion. Our favorite arena, and I can’t explain why, used to be Blockbuster video, a video rental chain in our area. Almost every Friday you could find us at one of the local Blockbusters dropping into neutral bows and matching strike for strike. More then a few displays have been the casualty of our stupidity.

I think I’ll stop there for now. I have one or two more that I want to talk about however they are the more controversial sides of my life and I’ll need more time to explain them.